Anonymous asked: thanks for this opportunity, is there a write up or output from the summitt and what are the next steps?
Summit report will be available to Summiteers and to IAP2 through the IAP2 Affiliate representatives on the Board within the month. There will be summary also available for wider distribution. The Summit is one part of a much larger project to renew and refresh the teaching and learning materials of the Certificate in Public Participation.
There are natural facilitators, and taught facilitators — these latter tend to know a process, and get thrown off their game when things deviate from this.
Questions:
(1) Is there any witnessing of one another’s trainings as ‘critical friends’?
- In Canada, there’s a Canadian training collective, working together. Don’t make as much money, but it works way better for students. A lot of sharing across this collective.
- Have learned so much by training with other trainers. This used to be more common, and a requirement of delivery of certificates at IAP2 conferences.
- Does not make financial sense in some contexts, especially in this time of fiscal restraint. Trainers are doing their work at a loss now, two trainers means a bigger loss.
- Support notion of a critical friend. May not have to be someone in the room; could involve debriefing after trainings, for example. This kind of continuous improvement mechanism could be more structured among IAP2 trainers.
- US trainers are in a consortium of 8: can’t make finances of co-training work, but do share tips.
- There is competition among trainers — this is a disincentive to share.
(2) How do you deliver the real baseline understanding for audience wanting an overview? What would this look like?
- There is a ‘decision makers course’ — this trainer focuses on leadership, leadership theory, and uses the formal material as background manual.
- Have to be careful about who this course is delivered to — some want the short leadership course as a substitute for the Planning course (it’s hard to see the value of the Planning course before you’ve experienced it). You can’t get what’s in the Planning course in one day — needs two.
- Would be good to be able to tailor courses to different audiences — for some audience needs (e.g. people not planning to do the work themselves, but wanting a broader understanding) a half day or one day course would be good.
- But it also creates confusion — people will always opt for the shorter course if there’s that option.
* Existing training was intended to be baseline: foundational for new people. Solid elemental material that supports people to do their jobs better. Add higher level stuff, but be careful about shifting existing trainings to a higher level.
* Most important thing IAP2 can do in the certificate program is to equip people to do a better job, especially around principles governing the work.
* Let’s not lose the systematic approach — appeals to scientists, engineers, etc. Allows particular groups to feel comfortable about devoting two days to this (or having their staff do so).
* Need multiple forms of delivery, especially to reach learners outside of big cities.
What do you do as trainers that takes you beyond the formal materials and trainer guides?
- Adding stories from own practice to deepen materials; this requires that one be a ‘practitioner that trains’, rather than a simple trainer.
- Drawing stories from students, helping them to understand what happened and why. These provide key epiphanies: “Now I understand why that happened….”
- Students bring in barriers to this kind of work that they want to talk about. And deep fear/anxiety about what to do in face of strong emotional contexts in P2 — need to bring in tools for dealing with these situations.
- Key that trainers model behaviour we are trying to teach; facilitate the group in the way you would expect them to facilitate their participants?
Continuation of “What do you do that’s not in the formal materials?”
- Spend a lot of time having them relate back what’s in the materials to their own setting — this linkage is not sufficiently prominent in the formal materials, which can be quite theoretical. “What would you be doing in your own context around what we’ve just be discussing?”
- For in-house training, getting someone senior from the organization begin the training by framing its importance, and come back at the end to present certificates.
- Pre-survey work, videos, readings; and follow up mentorship.
Are there things in the materials you don’t teach?
- The communication module is too content-loaded. Do a needs assessment with them at the beginning and focus on some of the content. This is the course that most needs redesign: it just covers too much.
- Communication module is not tied tightly enough to P2.
- Communication module has value, in that too many practitioners communicate without giving enough on the process (what their role is, what the message is, etc.) This could be made more prominent in materials.
- Some of material in communication gets pointed to as further work, but it’s not a writing workshop.
- Communication stuff needs to come earlier, and be embedded — e.g. in Planning module, where there needs to be more on building relationships. Make planning 3 days, and bring in attitude, etc.
- Planning module needs more on internal commitment.
How well does certificate give participants readiness to do this work?
- For people with lots of experience already, certificate helps them to add rigor and system to what they do.
- For beginners, it helps to spread the certificate over time, give it time to sink in.
- It would be helpful to give beginners a plan template, that gives a structure for writing a plan. One trainers says she gives out a variety of sample plans, share and critique them; this is much appreciated.
- Participants do leave certificate with a strong ability to judge their own readiness to do different parts of the work. Or at least this is true in smaller trainings, where the trainer has a chance for some one-on-one work.
- Rigorous approach to creating a plan (first two days of certificate) is key — this is where transformation happens.
- Could be more emphasis on how some people are just not ready to go out and do this work, may never be ready. This is not in the manual, but these conversations do happen. Have people talk about their own gifts/talents/contributions, what do these equip them to do?
- So much of what trainers do is not in the materials; there needs to be more support for trainers in sharing what they actually do.
-
The question being asked is: What would a world class Certificate training program offered by IAP2 look like?
As the first day of the Summit drew to a close key themes were emerging around these four elements:
- content
- structure
- delivery
- resources
The existing materials contain many features that would remain in a revamped program.
Here are some of the ideas and measures that we also heard:
Content
- theory of power - how does this influence the P2 processes and outcomes
- equipping practitioners for working within their organisations
- what are the pre-conditions for decision-making and how can you as a practitioner be supported in identifying those and creating those
- how can you look after yourself in spaces and places where P2 has not been done well?
- case studies from around the world
- set of questions around designing P2 processes to guide and not prescribe
- Code of ethics
- what is the place of the spectrum - how it is used - overdue for revision
- induction into community of IAP2
Strucutre
- consistent application of evaluation of learning outcomes
- students assessed to demonstrate they had learnt the material
- modular
- online elements
- customised elements for specific groups (eg decision-makers, civic leaders)
Delivery
- video clips of stories from practitioners to enrich content
- pre and post-testing of registrants
- trainer quality monitored and supported to ensure trainers meet and exceed IAP2 expectations and meet lerning objectives of program
- ongoing professional development of trainers to maintain and improve standards in delivery
- capacity to gather data (eg through evaluation) for later research by other institutions or learning partners
Resources
- repositry post training accessible to graduates
- platform to build a learning community of practitioners post completion of training
Who is in the space?
- practitioners
- citizens
- decision-makers
Who is coming to training? Why are they coming?
What is the training all about?
- application of the ethics, principles, processe and foundations
- the learning journey
- quality of the trainer and their ability to deliver
Scope of the learning
Modes of delivery to support the learning
Support base for the learner:
- eg communications forum, mentors, peers, for on-the-job learning
How about a competency test at the end of modules?
And pre-testing students before they enrol to get them ready for the training?
What is the IAP2 niche market?
What do you think ? Post your comments.
” What is the AND between the hunger and the capacity” Stephani Roy McCallum
” Formal training programs are only supporting all the other kinds of training” Lars Kluver
“Europe has so much to teach us” Carson
“Public participation is as much cultural as procedural” Doug Sarno
